Nathan Bedford Forrest's critics have called him everything from a violent backwoodsman, illiterate redneck, and cruel slaver, to a crooked politician, unfaithful husband, and simple-minded hillbilly. However, traditional unreconstructed writers, like award-winning Southern historian and Tennessee author Colonel Lochlainn Seabrook, know that General Forrest was none of these things. In fact, he was quite the opposite, as is revealed in Seabrook's classic work: Nathan Bedford Forrest: Southern Hero, American Patriot.
As we learn in this enlightening little book, far from being an inhumane slave owner and trader, Forrest granted most of his servants their freedom even before Lincoln's War. Others he enlisted in his own command (half of dozen who served as his personal guards), then emancipated them in the fall of 1863 - the same year Lincoln issued his "military measure," the fake and illegal Emancipation Proclamation (which freed no slaves in either the North or the South). Forrest never separated servant families, refused to sell to cruel slavers, and was even responsible for reuniting divided black families.
Unlike Lincoln - who throughout his life repeatedly blocked black civil rights and aggressively campaigned for American apartheid and the deportation of all blacks out of the U.S. - after the War Forrest happily hired back his original servants with full civil rights, then called for the South to repopulate herself with new African immigrants. Neither the founder or leader of the original 19th-Century KKK (which has no connection to today's KKK) as pro-North and New South historians disingenuously teach, Forrest closed the Conservative anti-carpetbagger organization down in 1869 when it was infiltrated by imposters, who began committing crimes under the KKK banner. These and many other captivating facts are presented clearly and concisely by Col. Seabrook, a cousin of Forrest, in this rousing defense of the Wizard of the Saddle, one of the greatest, most inspiring, beloved, romantic, complex, and intriguing figures in American history.
Lavishly illustrated and written in an easy-to-read style, at 120 pages this small volume is perfect for Civil War museum shops, historic homes, or any tourist hot spot. Makes a great gift as well. Nathan Bedford Forrest, just one of 12 books Col. Seabrook has written about the great Southern icon, includes footnotes, a bibliography, and an index. The foreword is by Southern educator James Ronald Kennedy, author of The South Was Right!
Neo-Victorian scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, whose literary works range from astronomy to zoology, is one of the most prolific and popular writer-historians in the world today. A descendant of the families of Alexander H. Stephens, John S. Mosby, Edmund W. Rucker, and William Giles Harding, he is known by literary critics as the "new Shelby Foote" and the "American Robert Graves," and by his fans as the "Voice of the Traditional South." The Sons of Confederate Veterans member is a Kentucky Colonel, a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal, and the author and editor of nearly 100 educationally enlightening books (currently). Described by his readers as "game changers" and "life-altering," his voluminous writings have introduced hundreds of thousands to vital facts that have been left out of our mainstream books. A 7th generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage and the 6th great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford, Col. Seabrook has a 45-year background in American and Southern history, and is the author of the international blockbuster Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!
